


3 Cups Of Coffee

by archura



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: "I thought you were dead.", Alternate Universe, Brief Mentions of scars and injuries, Coffee Shops, Developing Kandreil, Developing Relationship, Disabled Character, Established Kandrew, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Multi, Past Kevneil, Small Towns, Starting Over, Trans Neil Josten, foxes appear to say hi too!, seth is alive and thriving!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26464489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archura/pseuds/archura
Summary: When Neil Josten decided to start over with a new ID and a new look, he was sure that his past was in the past. He was going to find a small town to settle in and live there in peace for the rest of his life. What he didn't expect was to ran into his ex Kevin and his new boyfriend in a small town across the country.
Relationships: Kevin Day/Andrew Minyard, Kevin Day/Neil Josten, Kevin Day/Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 25
Kudos: 200
Collections: AFTG Exchange Fall 2020





	3 Cups Of Coffee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justdk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdk/gifts).



> This my exchange gift for @justdk ! Hope you enjoy it!

It’s been years. Neil thought. 4 years since his mom’s death and 2 whole years since his father finally executed. For the last two years, life was pretty intense for Neil. Not as intense as his life on the road but definitely intense enough to change his life. This time, for better.

When uncle Stuart saved Nathan from killing him at the last minute, he was missing his right leg and he was closer to death than he ever was. The FBI took over the case and they forced Neil into the witness protection program. Going to the witness protection program meant a new ID and new ID meant Neil could finally be the person he always wanted to be. 

No more Natalie Wesninski. He changed his name to Neil Josten and they changed the little F on his ID to M. 

Neil didn’t know why the FBI was too cool about it or why uncle Stuart paid for his top surgery and even stayed with him while he recovered, but they did. 

It was a long, hard road with physical therapy and adjusting to his new prosthetic leg but it was worth it. It was worth every second of it.

When he was finally not required to stay in witness protection, Neil decided to move around the country until he could find a nice place to settle. He had more money than he could spend on his bank account thanks to Stuart so he didn’t have to think about a job until he settled. 

He mostly traveled the small towns, stayed at them for a few weeks, trying to adjust but none of them felt like home. 6 months into his little journey to find a home, he decided to visit a small town named Palmetto. Palmetto was a really small town, not many people lived there, but it was an open minded community according to his research. They even had a clear protocol about giving jobs to the people with criminal records, with some reasonable exceptions of course, and they even had a good hospital so Neil could visit the doctor when his leg started acting up again. 

Palmetto sounded fine. 

He arrived in Palmetto around 9 am, still early for his liking but most of the shops were open already so his worry about having to wait in his car until the town awakened disappeared. He parked his car in the park space that was literally in front of a coffee shop and opened his door to take some fresh air to his lungs. It was the middle of October and the weather was already cold enough to be mistaken with winter. 

He quickly reached for his backpack that carried all his crap, his phone, earphones, wallet and a huge brick of a book because yes, he started reading books since he had nothing else to spend his time with. 

Coffee shop looked old. The fainted ugly orange painting outside was chipped and the signboard that writes “Fox Den Café” looked like it was going to fall at any second. Still, inside the coffee shop looked modern enough. 

Neil opened the glass door, taking the fresh brewed coffee smell with a small smile on his face. Ah yes, he could stay in Palmetto just for this coffee shop.

“You are new.” A voice said a second after Neil stepped inside. It sounded like a statement more than a question. 

Neil opened his eyes that he didn’t remember closing, and stared at the very short but bulky blond that stands behind the register. He looked so out of place with his full black outfit in an orange themed coffee shop. 

“Yeah.” Neil walked toward the register.

Blond man didn’t seem interested enough to ask another question about the stranger. 

“What do you want?’’ He said instead. His hand grabbed a ceramic mug like he already knew Neil was going to drink it in here.

“Black coffee, and 2 croissants.’’ Neil quickly said, his hand was already in his pocket to find the 20 bucks he put there a few hours ago. 

“Filter or drip.” The man asked before taking the money. He gave the change back but Neil pointed to the tip box. The man put it on his back pocket instead. 

“What is the difference?” Neil asked, getting surprised that there were actually more than one way to make coffee. 

“They both taste like shit.” He answered. Face never breaking the apathetic look but Neil was watchful enough to notice a slight frown appeared on his lips. “Drip then.”

Neil shrugged. He put his arm to the register to support his weight while waiting. 

The blonde noticed, of course he noticed because even though his hands were busy preparing Neil’s order, his stare never left Neil. 

“Why are you waiting here?” He asked finally. He was pouring water in a weird looking glass filled with coffee grounds. 

“For my order?” 

“Go and sit. I will bring it to you when it is done.” The man said. Pointing to the tables with his head.

Neil nodded, his prosthetic leg was starting to hurt a little and his other leg was aching from sitting weirdly on the driver’s seat for hours. 

He basically threw himself to a couch looking chair and stretched his legs as he sighed in relief. He couldn’t wait to find a hotel so he could take a long nice sleep. 

The blond didn’t take long preparing his orders. He arrived at Neil’s table when he was busy finding the book page he left. He really needed to start using bookmarks.

‘’Thank you.’’ He muttered. Moving his book a little so the blond could place his orders. 

-

The next hour went quietly. Neil focused on reading his book and only got distracted a few times when a new customer came to buy take out coffee. 

When Neil was finally bored of reading his book and he ran out of coffee, he got off this chair and grabbed the coffee mug to get another one. He didn’t even know if he was supposed to carry his own mug back but he figured it wouldn’t hurt. 

He limped a little more than usual since his real leg fell asleep from sitting on top of it but he wasn’t going to wait for it to get better.

The blond moved his eyes from his phone to Neil when he heard the footsteps. He got up when he realized Neil was coming and he grabbed another mug.

“Another black coffee?” 

“Actually-”

Neil got interrupted when the glass door opened and someone whined loudly. 

“Andrew, I swear to god you better brought your gym bag. ”

More specifically, Kevin Day. 

Neil’s ex boyfriend. From high school. 

Kevin. _Fucking._ Day.

Neil froze. He quickly put the mug to the counter because he was afraid it would fall if he didn’t.

“Kevin?” He whispered. A lot quieter than he expected but Kevin still heard. 

His head snapped to Neil's direction and he looked at him with confusion.

“Do i know you?’’ Kevin asked, his voice cold as ice.

Of course he didn’t remember him. Last time Kevin saw Neil was 4 years ago and he was going by Natalie. Not Neil. 

He wanted to cry. He never thought he could see Kevin but there he was, standing right in front of him. 

“It’s me.’’ was all Neil could say. His lungs felt like it was squishing inside his chest. His hand grabbed the counter for support.

Kevin looked at him. His eyes scanning the scars on his face, then looking at the still growing buzz cut. When his eyes finally met with Neil’s, Kevin gasped.

“Lea?” Kevin asked. He took a step towards him. He looked like he couldn’t believe he was standing in front of him. Neil noticed a slight tremble on his hands.

“I go by Neil now, but yes. It is me.” Neil tried to grin.

Kevin, out of all the things he could, _hugged_ him. It was almost bone crushing, his arms wrapped around Neil’s body tightly as he slightly moved his feet from the ground. 

If he was someone else, Neil would panic but with Kevin, it was different. It was grounding. It was safe. It was all Neil needed for the past few years. He hugged him back.

“Kevin.” The blond warned. 

Kevin removed his hands immediately. 

“Sorry.” He said. Giving the blond a quick look before turning Neil back again. “I thought you were dead! I tried to look for you when I heard the butcher was dead. I even went to the police station. They told me you were registered dead.” Kevin reached out to his hand and waited for a nod from Neil before he grabbed Neil’s shoulder. Neil wasn’t sure if it was to ground him or Kevin himself. Kevin’s worried eyes scanned Neil’s body. He scowled when he realized Neil was not standing “normal”. 

“What happened to your leg?” He said, voice shaking slightly.

“Lost a leg. No biggie.” Neil tried to joke but his grin quickly disappeared when Kevin didn’t laugh.

“Oh my god, Le- Neil.” 

“Are you guys going to stand in front of my counter all day or are you thinking of moving to one of the tables.’’ The blond, apparently named Andrew, said in boredom. Even though his voice sounded not interested, Neil could tell he was curious.

“I’m sorry, Drew.” Kevin said, suddenly turning to Andrew.

“This is my boyfriend Andrew.” Kevin said, pointing at the blond. “And this is N-Neil. I told you about him.”

“Yes, your ex.” Andrew said, placing 3 mugs to the counter. “Glad he is alive. Now sit, I will bring drinks.”

-

They talked for hours. Mostly about what happened after Neil disappeared in high school. Kevin listened to him carefully, eyes never breaking eye contact with Neil. Andrew joined them from time to time too. He sat with them until a new customer came or left to refill their mugs. But Neil appreciated that he mostly left them alone so they could talk about the private things.

When Neil was finally done, he showed Kevin his prosthetic leg because he knew Kevin wanted to see. It was black, starting from above his knee because Nathan made sure to ruin the knee.

“Does it hurt?” Kevin asked. He touched the plastic cover carefully.

“Not that much. Can’t walk for long though.” 

Andrew came to their table with three mugs that smelled like hot chocolate.

“What are you doing here then? Did you know I was here?” Kevin asked, grabbing one of the mugs to hand it to Neil. 

Neil took a small sip from the mug. _Chocolate coffee?_

“Actually I didn’t know. After the witness protection I moved from town to town to see if I could find a place to live.” Neil ignored the stare coming from Andrew.

“You should stay here.” Kevin said. “We have jobs. Our friend group is nice. You can even go to an online university like me and Andrew.”

“I don’t know.” Neil bit his lip. Palmetto seemed nice enough but he wasn’t sure if coming back to Kevin’s life after he left the way he did was fair. “I will think about it.”

Kevin sent him a look that screams “I know you are lying.” but didn’t say anything.

  
  


-

After that, Neil moved to a small hotel that was run by an overly friendly man named Matt and his girlfriend Dan. It turned out they were actually part of the friend group Kevin was talking about and when they learned that, they moved his room to the best one free of charge. 

Neil met with the rest of the friend group shortly. Renee, a tiny pink haired girl, was the owner of the local bookshop and she gifted Neil a signed copy of It when he came asking for the book. He met with Seth, a punk with really cool hair, in the grocery shop. He listened to him telling embarrassing things Kevin had done while scanning Neil’s items. He later helped Neil carry his bags to his car.

He also met with Allison, she was the owner of the biggest restaurant in the town and she was hosting the “welcome party” for Neil. Neil only learnt about the dinner when Kevin and Andrew appeared in his hotel room with a plastic bag of clothes and basically forced him to go for a “dinner”.

The dinner was nice, Neil met with the people he ran into this morning again and let them ask questions about his “crazy” life. 

“Where is Nicky and Aaron again?” Dan asked suddenly, turning to Andrew who was sitting 2 chairs next to Neil.

“Nicky is in Columbia and Aaron is with Katelyn.” Kevin answered instead. 

“Nicky is Andrew’s cousin and Aaron is Andrew’s twin.” Allison explained to Neil. “Thank god they are not here to scare you off.”

“Nicky is fine but Aaron is kind of an asshole. Not in a bad way but still a little shit. Love him.” Allison continued. Sending Andrew a wink. 

“So you two were dating in high school right?” Dan asked, sounding excited. She leaned towards the table so she could face Neil. “How was Kevin in high school?”

“Well,” Neil started. Suddenly feeling weird talking about Kevin in front of his boyfriend, Andrew. “Chubbier.”

“Ah fuck you.” Kevin said but he was grinning. 

Neil sent a short look at Andrew to see if he was uncomfortable. Andrew raised an eyebrow when he noticed Neil staring at him. 

“Kevin, please tell me you have a photo of you from high school.” Allison asked. “I need to see the chubby Kevin.”

“Good luck finding them. I burned them all after graduation.” Kevin said. Sounding both proud and sad at the same time.

“You did what?” Neil couldn’t help but ask. Kevin was so big on keeping every trash for their “memory” value and he would never throw away a photograph on purpose. Yet alone burning them. Then the truth hit him. Kevin burnt them after Neil went missing. 

The realization hurt more than any wound he ever received. 

-

Days turned to weeks quickly. Neil was spending his mornings in Andrew’s coffee shop, mostly reading books and sometimes talking with Andrew. Their conversations were always random. They would create weird scenarios and talk about what they would do to survive. Sometimes they would talk about books. Andrew would summarize a book he really liked while busy preparing orders. Neil didn’t know when he claimed a chair behind the counter where Andrew works but it became routine. It was easier to continue conversations when Neil was sitting close to Andrew.

Neil also spent the majority of his time with Kevin. Kevin would come pick him up from the coffee shop and they would go to a diner to have lunch together. With Kevin, Neil mostly listened. He loved listening to Kevin and it didn’t matter what was the subject of Kevin’s hours long talking. Sometimes Kevin would talk about how he met with the friend group. Sometimes he would whine about his co-workers and how they always misplace the jumping ropes. Sometimes he talked about his favorite movies too. Refusing to give spoilers but still somehow managing to give out the plot. He asked questions too. When he was tired from talking too much and wanting to hear Neil’s voice. 

“I missed you so much, Neil.” Kevin said one day. They were walking out from the diner to pick up some drinks from the grocery shop. 

Neil stopped walking when he heard the sad tone Kevin carried in his voice.

The thing is, Neil missed him too. He missed him so much and there wasn’t a day he didn’t think of Kevin while he was away. Kevin was a luxury he never deserved to have and Kevin was someone he was no longer allowed to love. Not after leaving him without a goodbye and made him think he was dead. Not after Kevin moved on and fell in love with someone else.

“I’m sorry.” was all Neil managed to say.

Kevin grabbed Neil’s hand and gave a light squeeze. 

Neil removed his hand faster than a lighting bolt. No. He was not going to do this to Kevin and Andrew.

“Neil-”

“I need to go.”

With that, Neil left.

-

Neil didn’t really mean to ignore Kevin. Or Andrew.

It all started when he didn’t find the courage to go to Andrew’s coffee shop and refused to answer Kevin’s calls. 

Once he started doing that, it became a habit. He started buying his coffee from Seth’s grocery shop and ordered take out from the diner to his hotel room. Since he almost never left the hotel room, he didn’t even bother to wear his leg or charge his phone. He lied on his bed all day, watching crappy tv shows or reading the book Renee gifted him. 

He was miserable to say at least but he needed time until he figured out his bullshit. 

Days quickly turned into a week and exactly the 7th day of him started to ignore both Kevin and Andrew, he heard a loud knocking in his door.

If he was the old person he once was, he would panic and reach for his weapon but right now, in this moment, this new Neil couldn’t care less.

“Neil.” The voice called, stopping the knocking. “It’s me.”

_Andrew._

“Wait.” Neil called, reaching for the prosthetic leg that was thrown into the floor. He knew Andrew wouldn’t leave without talking to him so there wasn’t any option to ignore him anymore.

He wore the leg, got up and raised his armpit to check how bad he was smelling. _Not that bad._

Once he reached the door and opened, Andrew quickly got inside the room. He didn’t wait to start talking.

“You are ignoring Kevin.” He said. His eyes quickly scanned the room before reaching for the almost empty box of cigarettes that's placed on Neil’s bed.

“I’m not.” Neil tried his chance. He was definitely ignoring him.

“And me.” Andrew said, eyes turning to look at him directly.

“Andrew-”

“What is the problem?” Andrew cut off. He was staring at him with a sharp gaze. “Did he do something? Or me?”

Neil shook his head. None of them did anything. It was Neil. It was Neil and his stupid feelings. 

“The problem is me.” Neil said. He broke the eye contact and moved to the bed to sit. 

Andrew didn’t answer. Neil didn’t find the courage to look at him but when he heard Andrew was coming towards him, he took a deep breath.

He heard the lighter clicking. Then he heard Andrew taking a loud drag from the cigarette. Now he was standing in front of Neil.

“You love Kevin.” Andrew said after a minute. Neil raised his head in shock to look at him. Andrew had his regular apathetic face on him.

“That isn't a question.” Neil said. Trying to not look away.

“It's not.” Andrew confirmed. His eyes met with Neil’s. “And he still loves you too.”

“And you are fine with that?”

“Kevin is allowed to love whoever he wants.” Andrew took a drag from his cigarette. Eyes never once leaving Neil’s. “I’m not a jealous kind of person.”

Neil looked at him. Trying to see if Andrew was serious or not. Trying to see if he was actually okay with it. But after a few weeks spending his mornings with him, Neil knew Andrew wasn’t someone who lied. And Andrew never did something he didn't want to. 

“I also like you.” Neil said, voice quiet but certain. It was true. As much as he loved Kevin, he started to develop feelings for Andrew too and it was a whole new scary experience for him. Loving one person? He could handle it. Loving two people at the same time? Not so much.

Andrew’s face didn’t change but Neil could swear he saw a tiny wrinkle on his eyes. 

“That's fine.” He said, putting out the cigarette with the plastic bottle he found on the floor.

“But you two are dating.”

Andrew turned to look at him.

“Doesn’t mean I wouldn't blow you.”

Neil let out a surprised laugh. “You like me.”

Andrew took a step closer to him. His eyes carefully examining Neil’s face.

“Yes or no?”

“To what?”

“A fucking kiss, Josten.”

“Ye-”

_Andrew kissed him._

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/archurabasty)


End file.
